


Deep Seas, Deep Secrets

by RedTeamShark



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Alternate Universe - Mermaid, Gen, Mermaid Fjord, Warlock Pacts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-07
Updated: 2018-12-07
Packaged: 2019-09-13 16:40:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16896219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedTeamShark/pseuds/RedTeamShark
Summary: They’re each other’s little secret. Jester, sneaking out of her room late at night. Fjord, swimming away from the safety of the depths.





	Deep Seas, Deep Secrets

**Author's Note:**

> Mermaid Fjorester got mentioned in chat last night, what with the current aquatic adventures of the Mighty Nein, and I, uh, couldn't resist.

They’re each other’s little secret.

She sneaks out of her room at night, long after her mama has gone to sleep, long after the town is still and quiet. Jester uses the back alleys and shadows to run to the docks, the shadow of her best friend, her Traveller, shielding her from the eyes of the guards. She sits down on the sagging wooden dock, the waves just kissing the tips of her dangling bare toes, and whistles their secret tune.

Fjord swims under the moonlight, closer to the surface and the shore than what’s allowed. The small treasures in his satchel, the deep sea gifts that he brings his land-dweller, don’t weigh him down. He goes to the sound of her whistling, circles under her hanging feet and surfaces with a grin, lets her haul him up to he can fold his arms on the dock and keep his tail under the water.

They talk for most of the night, when they meet, exchange stories and the small items that they find for each other. For Jester, a smooth blue pearl that he pried out of a clam. For Fjord, a shining gold coin with a hole punched in it, a piece of tough seafarers leather threaded through it.

Before the sun can come up they part ways, Jester back to her room and her mama, Fjord back to the cold depths of the ocean. There’s an over-the-shoulder look, a longing, a tightening of fists around the small presents exchanged before they run off.

Secret nighttime rendezvous are never enough.

* * *

There are more dangerous places in the ocean.

He knows this, he knows he’s been warned away from them for a reason. The surface, where the land-dwellers sail their massive ships and cast shadows like whales. The shores, where the land-dwells build their cities. The darkest depths, deep inside caves, where things ancient and hungry lurk, waiting to consume any hapless wanderer that comes across their nest.

He _knows_ this and he seeks them out.

The darkness closes in around him, deeper and deeper, no light, no warmth, no life down here. Cold, gelatinous kelp brushes his sides, curls around his arms and tries to pull him back, and he yanks free of it, swims onward. Small lights blink and dart in the darkness, always the same distance away from him, trying to draw him towards them and what creatures control them, and Fjord studiously ignores their appeal. He closes his hand around the coin necklace Jester gave him and swims deeper into the cave.

The voice that comes booms not from the water around him, but from inside his own head and he almost flees it. The darkness in front of him parts suddenly, a glowing yellow eye with a slitted pupil filling his field of vision. Fjord pulls back, swallows his fear and goes still, watches it warily.

**_“Seeking…”_ **

The pupil darts to either side before settling on him, the slit widening out. Fjord holds himself steady, waits for more. The silence spins out eternally, the cold, dark depths of nothing around him and that yellow eye.

Finally, he breaks. “I want to be a land-dweller. I want to have legs.”

There’s a feeling, almost a tickle in the back of his mind. Something worms deeper into him and he shudders, loses feeling in his arms and tail for a moment.

 _Pain_ rips into him, the pain of a spear through the chest, the pain of barnacles scraping along his tail, and he’s splitting in half, and he’s suddenly, viciously aware of the _weight_ of the water above him, the crush of it all around him and the tightness in his chest. The eye grows larger, larger, the pupil suddenly widening out until blackness swallows him again.

**_“Learn…”_ **

Fjord comes to with sand under him, the sun bright overhead. He panics, for a moment, scrambles upwards and back towards the waves, his limbs flailing in all directions as he tries to get himself back into the water, back into the safety of the depths. He finally gets into the sea again, ducks under and prepares to swim away before he realizes that his tail has split up the middle, that rather than shining blue-green scales below his waist, all he has is two limbs, two legs that end in feet. He sits up from the water and blows air from his nose, inhales again on instinct. He… He has legs. He’s a land-dweller.

His head tilts up, looks from one end of the beach to the other. “Jester…” This isn’t the dock where he met her, where he spent so many nights with her… he’ll have to find her.

Looking down again, studying himself, he frowns. His satchel is gone. The only thing he still possesses is the coin around his neck, the one she gave him… and lifting that, he finds that rather than a shining gold coin, it’s now a faintly glowing yellow eye, with a slitted pupil.

Fjord shudders, slowly pushing himself upward, beginning to try out his new legs. He needs to figure out this whole ‘walking’ thing before he goes looking for his friend.

* * *

It’s been weeks since she’s seen him and nonchalance has turned to worry, to anger, to fear, and back to worry. Jester sneaks down to the docks nearly every night, sings her song and leaves her little presents when Fjord doesn’t come. She finds them still there the next night, little unaccepted treasures.

After a few months, she stops going to find him.

Things get a lot more complicated after that, with the nobleman and her mama and the guards. Jester flees Nicodranis in the dead of night, northward until she reaches Port Demali. She can buy passage to another place, or maybe head inland with a merchant group, explore the neighboring Dwendalian Empire. She can tell people about The Traveller as she goes, too!

Near the docks and the ships one evening, weighing her options of sailing the open ocean or visiting the neighboring empire, she hears a familiar, whistled tune.

She turns on her heel, seeking it out in the crowds at the port, following her ears as it leads her away. Excitement builds in her chest as she moves closer to the water, to the sound of their little song. Would Fjord really have found her again, all the way up here? Would he really come so close to so many people?

She’s on a boat before she realizes it, up against the railing and looking down over the side. No sign of him, her shoulders dropping. The song is gone, too. Maybe it was all in her head? Or maybe The Traveler was playing a mean trick on her! He liked tricks, and sometimes she thought they were mean to other people, but he’d never played a mean trick on _her_ before.

“Ah, ma’am? Can I help you?” She turns to the voice, her eyes going wide as she looks up into the face of the man who spoke. She’d recognize that face anywhere, even if there are a few new scars on it, even if he’s wearing a loose shirt and… and _pants_.

“Fjord?!”

“Jester?” He’s just as taken aback, nearly drops the barrel he was carrying as she wraps her arms around his chest. He pats his free hand against her back gently, leaning in and lowering his voice. “What are you doin’ out here?”

“I could ask you the same thing! What happened to your--” Her voice abruptly lowers, remembering that they’re not alone. “You know.”

“It’s a long story. C’mon, let’s get you off the ship before you get in trouble. I gotta finish my work, but then let’s go down to the… uh… The Sandy Shanty and I’ll tell you everything.” He guides her back to the gangplank, his eyes on her face. “I’m sorry it took so long for me to see you again, Jester.”

She doesn’t tell him about all the presents she left. About all the presents she angrily kicked into the sea, when they weren’t accepted. She doesn’t tell him about the nights spent on the dock, crying too hard to sing their song, convinced he was dead. None of that matters when he’s here again, when he’s _walking around_ on legs like a person! Jester beams, reaching forward for the string of tough leather around his neck, tugging out the coin from under his shirt. Besides, he kept this, so he couldn’t have forgotten her. “It’s okay, Fjord. We have plenty of time to catch up, now.”

She leaves and he sighs, quickly tucks the necklace back into his shirt. Just as he touches it, the yellow eye flashes out from the gold coin, an image searing into his mind and leaving him stock still.

Fjord shakes it off with some effort, getting back to work. He’s found her again. The rest of the deal can wait a little longer.


End file.
